​The Banyan Center

The Banyan School is a not-for-profit international learning environment that strives for academic excellence, independent intellect, and compassion. It provides a high quality education to an diverse student body that includes children of Thai parents, children of Western parents, children of mixed heritage, and Shan Burmese refugee students from the Burmese Refugee Project. This student body not only brings a diverse knowledge base to the classroom, it also fosters a rich cross-cultural exchange and understanding. Courses are taught in English and Thai. The Banyan School is not affiliated with any religious group or tradition, and both the staff and student body come from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. 



Click here to download the Banyan Center Handbook.​

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​Highlights
•We provide multi-language instruction so that students can achieve multi-language fluency at a young age.
•We ensure a diverse, integrated student population so that the children may broaden social ties and experiences and learn from each other in a multi-cultural setting.
•We adhere to academic standards much higher than those currently met by local schools, public or private.
•We teach advanced math and science skills and will teach students to critically engage one another in constructive discourse.
•We provide bi-lingual instruction consistent with other academically rigorous international schools throughout Thailand. 
•We are located in an area that brims with diversity. Locals identify themselves as being of Thai, Chinese, Malay, Burmese, Shan, Lisu, Akha, Hmong, Karen, and other racial/ethnic backgrounds; they adhere to Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, animist, and other faiths. There is also a significant minority of foreigners in the area.

 

Our Approach

The Banyan School draws from multiple alternative education methods in order to create a hybrid model that speaks to our unique context, setting and student body. 

 

While some conventional classroom teaching modalities are used, we use aspects of the Montessori approach to teaching in part to provide children with uninterrupted blocks of work time in which they choose the educational tasks on which they will work. These tasks involve the use of carefully designed (and scientifically validated) educational materials that are age-appropriate and designed to show the student relationships between objects and concepts. For instance, math is learned by actually adding and subtracting everyday objects using one's hands. This "discovery" approach is much more effective than traditional classroom teaching. One study published in the world's leading scientific publication, Science, found that the Montessori approach is significantly more effective at increasing math and reading (and improving child behavior) than traditional teaching methods.

 

 



See this article in Science Magazine on the superior effectiveness of the Montessori approach.



The Burmese Refugee Project

The Burmese Refugee Project played a role in the founding of the Banyan School. The BRP serves stateless Shan Burmese migrants in the area. We consider the BRP and the Banyan School sister initiatives. For more information, visit us here.

About Us